In search of the old-time diner experience

Month: August 2016

CJ’s Diner is located in the Quechee Gorge Village, which it shares with the Vermont Antique Mall, Cabot Creamery store, Vermont Alpaca, Vermont Spirits distillery, and more. This 1946 Worcester Semi-Streamliner (#787) began its career in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It was brought to Quechee in 1991, and has had several owners and several different names since then. The current owners also have a restaurant and bar next door, which would account for the fact that this diner offers mimosas, bloody Marys, and beer on tap.

The interior includes the original terrazzo floors and tiled front on the counter, along with a smattering of the original elements behind the counter. Seating includes stools at the counter and booths. No cooking is done within sight of customers; we assume it’s done in the kitchen of the restaurant. The menu was standard diner fare, including breakfast all day.

Because it’s located in a very heavy tourist area, the atmosphere here is quite different from that of a community-oriented eatery like the Windsor Diner, with its regulars well-known to a friendly staff. Fifties’ rock and roll piped in overhead could not make up for less than enthusiastic waitresses or the rather incongruous TV monitor mounted above the counter. The end result was a big lack of authenticity, when it came to having a true American diner experience.

BLT: My BLT was pretty standard, although the “toasted” bread had blackened grill marks, most likely from a panini press, that tasted burnt. In spite of being in the peak season for luscious garden tomatoes, the sandwich contained the usual tasteless disk of hard commercial tomato, okay lettuce, and an appropriate amount of chewy bacon.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 5 being average, I gave my BLT a (5).

Cheeseburger: Don’s hamburger came with his choice of cheese plus lettuce and a similarly insipid tomato on a Kaiser-type bun. No onions, the usual condiments. The meat was thick but somewhat dry, and he gave the burger a (7).

French fries: These were included in the cheeseburger plate and were quite delicious. We decided they were probably cooked in beef tallow, which gave them lots of flavor and color (10).

Dessert: They didn’t offer and we didn’t ask. Customers were waiting in line, and the waitress seemed more interested in moving us along.

Have you ever noticed that some diners have the word “Miss” as part of their name? Ever wonder why?

American diners began in the mid-nineteenth century as horse-drawn lunch wagons. They were mobile and traveled from place to place, but instead of offering only walk-up service, they included room for patrons to sit inside at a counter, out of the elements. The lunch wagons primarily traveled to workplaces, providing their services to the men who were employed there. They also remained open at night, after restaurants had closed, thereby offering a place to grab a quick, inexpensive meal for the nighttime crowd.

Eventually, the lunch wagon business became so popular, towns began to enact ordinances to restrict their numbers and hours of operation. Wagon owners responded by finding semi-permanent locations for their wagons, and soon the idea of the prefabricated dining unit as an inexpensive way to start a business took off. Many of them ran on a shoestring budget that did not include funds for maintenance or landscaping, giving them the reputation of “greasy spoons” that appealed only to the working man.

By the 1920s, with women’s suffrage in the forefront, many of the diners recognized the need to attract women if they were to stay in business. In addition to cleaning up their act, adding booths or tables, and improving the esthetics with paint and flowers, many added the word “Miss” to their name in an effort to soften their image and appeal to women.

Over the years, the names of diners may change with new owners, and many of the old “Miss Somebody” diners have been renamed. Today we still have the “Miss Lyndonville Diner” and “Miss Bellows Falls Diner” here in Vermont, “Miss Worcester Diner” and “Miss Mendon Diner” in Massachusetts, and the “Miss Albany Diner” in New York. Hopefully, there are others. The “Miss” has also been commandeered by eating places that are not true diner-car diners, including one of our old favorites for blueberry pie, “The Miss Wiscasset Diner” in Wiscasset, Maine.

Personally, we find the whole “Miss” thing charming — just another reason to appreciate the history of the American Diner.

My garden plants—especially cucumbers and certain types of weeds—often exhibit a row of water beads in neat, uniform rows on the surface or edges of their leaves early in the morning. This phenomenon, lovely as it is, goes by the unfortunate name of guttation.

Guttation is not the same as dew. Dew forms on the surface of leaves and grasses when moisture in the air condenses into little pools of water. Guttation occurs when water pressure inside the plant pushes water out through water glands called hydathodes. This is most likely to occur on cool nights or when high humidity inhibits natural evaporation of moisture from the leaves. Roots continue to draw water from the soil, and when internal water pressure becomes too high, it forces excess moisture out through the glands.

Guttation is not an indication of over-watering. Rather, it’s the reaction of a healthy plant. Over-fertilizing, however, can have a negative effect via guttation, because of minerals that may be carried out onto the leaf tips and left there to accumulate when the water dries.